The kids are off on school holidays and I’m balancing spending ‘quality’ time with them (ie getting them off the iPads) and continuing trying to earn a living. I realise I’m in a better position than most, being self employed, but on the other hand…restricting my hours means restricting my income so not always easy.

Anyway, have decided to use the week positively by catching up on all the admin stuff (of which there is stacks!!!) as well as fitting in the odd (ie a lot) of clients.

Due to the upcoming launch of @EKhomeandbody products it seemed appropriate to do a photoshoot whilst I had the kids at home so we can look like a “instagram style” loving family. Have to say it went brilliantly. Everyone played ball and no sibling fights broke out. The products look awesome and my children look like they truly adore me!?! Happy days…thats worth its weight in gold.

Then, in my pursuit of all things natural, I took a trip upto London on Thursday to visit Cosmetics a la Carte in Pavillion Road, Sloane Square. What an experience!!!! A company that specialises in bespoke makeup but all their products are completely natural with no nasties in them. My fabulous consultant, Laura, made up a bespoke foundation for me and did me the most natural-look make over that made such a huge difference to my usual eye bags and pale skin. I walked out of there with a lighter step (and wallet) but worth every penny. Do you get to an age…or a stage…where you realise you just need a little more help on the skincare front? Having been the sort of woman who wears very little makeup, I’ve started to realise I need a little help. I don’t see that as a bad thing because in my head (not in reality) I’m going to grow into this 80 year old uber glamorous person who shops in Harvey Nics…but the reality isn’t quite the same. However, maybe this is the starting point. Maybe I cant rely on my usual ‘natural’ look and need to balance out some of the age imperfections.

Laura, the consultant was absolutely delightful and made me feel exceptionally normal that I had no idea how to apply make up at the age of 44. I left with a bag of products that made me feel amazing about myself (as superficial as that may sound) but also that I knew I could apply equally well when I got home.

So for the first time ever, I‘ve gone for a bright red lipstick. I decided I needed glamour…a little bit of Sophia Loren in my life…and after many attempts, I’ve nailed it. What a difference a red lipstick can make to a basic look.

So, all in all, a positive, if utterly, superficial week. But sometimes we just need a bit of ‘;me’ time and I don’t think we should feel guilty about it. Obviously if I did it all the time I’d be pretty bored but once in a while is good for me. Kids back to school on tuesday and after that it will be back to the hard slog. Makes me realise that everyone needs something to look forward to…even if it seems a little ‘first world’. But I know that next week I’ll go back to 10 hour days bat work and keeping my kids alive.

So I’ve had a lot of fun this month designing a brand new treatment. Over the years I’ve studied many different styles of massage and one thing I’ve learnt…if I’m being honest…is that most of them contradict one another. So all you can do, as a therapist, is take from each therapy and culture the bits that make sense to you from an anatomical, research and therapeutic perspective.

I’ll let you into a little secret. The sunny days aren’t my favourite. It’s the cold, crisp mornings, when the sunlight is reflecting off the frost-covered grass and you can see your breath that I count my lucky stars that this – the great outdoors – is my office. Of course, living in the UK, you get used to the grey and rainy days too, but however foul the weather, it’s nothing compared to the mood I would be in if I were denied my fix of outdoor exercise.

So its heading into winter time and we’re probably all forgetting that our summer existed (did we ever really get one in England??)…but lets not dwell, and instead look forward to some lovely things instead. And what could be more lovely than an utterly self indulgent retreat!!!

So this year, with the new clinic opening I wanted to start thinking outside the box a little. How to heal someone’s aches and pains is always forefront in my mind and its easy to advise to take a course of anti-inflammatories if people are still having problems from an injury.

And by that, I don’t mean what are the benefits to the body and the purpose of having them regularly, as that’s already well documented (it relieves muscle tension, provides greater joint flexibility, strengthens the immune system, reduces blood pressure etc etc etc, by the way).